Eunice and Ron Shanahan have shared with readers of the Victorian Web this material from their website, Letters from the Past. Click on thumbnails for larger images.

I have two letter from this lady which really show the circumstances of ordinary
people. They were both sent from Hackney to Wm. Crowdy, a solicitor in Highworth
Swindon Wilts. I have several to this family firm of solicitors, but these
have a twist to the ending.

Postal Marks

Both letters have the
same four postal markings: on the front

Framed two-step Receiving house stamp in blue ink TP HACKNEY N.O. This is
the mark for Hackney Northern Office, which had been in the Country area of
the Twopenny Post, but was transferred to the Town area in 1831.

manuscript ‘8’ - Highworth was 75 miles from London and the
rates (1812-1839) for a single letter between 50 and 80 miles was 8pence.

On the back:

transfer stamp of the Chief Office of the TPO which has the year
at the bottom, dated FE 15 1834 7 NIGHT

General Post evening duty circular date stamp FE 15 1834.

The Letters

31st December 1831

Sir

I sincerely hope you will pardon me for intruding a subject on you so much
prohibited in your last to Mr. B. but my great anxiety for my family instigates
me to use every endeavour to promote their welfare.

The favour I have to solicit from you Sir is the loan of twelve pounds. If
my request is complied with it will enable me to provide for two of my family
my Son and a daughter whose health being very delicate will not allow her
to leave home. On that consideration the person has given me an offer of allowing
her (for a constancy) 7d pr week if I will pay her eight pounds which I should
be most happy to do if possible but I have no other means of raising that
sum. I therefore most humbly solicit your kind compliance."

Note the sum of 7d per week for the daughter, yet the postage on this
one letter was 8d!). She then continues :

"My son also has an eligible situation promised if we can make him respectable
in his appearance which I should be enabled to do with the sum before named
and should I now be successful you may rely Sir on my not again applying to
you till all that is due is paid - I sincerely hope I may not be disappointed
and I shall ever Sir, pray for one whose kindness will never be forgotten
by your humble servant

E. Belcher

Should you Sir comply with my request I shall feel obliged by your dropping
a letter to me directed for me at the School of Industry Dalston Lane, Hackney.

I am Sir
E. Belcher"

Did Mrs. E Belcher receive her £12? There is no receiving datestamp to
show when it was received in Highworth, but there is a scribbled reply on one
of the ‘wings' of the folded letter, to the effect that a £12 draft
should be made out and sent to Mrs. B., so it looks as if her application was
approved and she would be able to provide for her two children.

The second letter was written three years later, and Mrs. Belcher is in worse
financial trouble than ever.

"Feby 16th 1834

Sir,

I feel a great reluctance in again troubling you respecting my affairs as
I received no answer to a letter I wrote some time since, sometimes I am led
to suppose you never received it as I always had an answer heretofore, and
an application to Mr. Hall is to no purpose as I fancy he does not study my
interest. I have no person but yourself to assist me - in my former letter
I stated that I was in daily expectation of a Writ for a long Doctors bill
which I kept off for some time in the hope of having a favourable answer from
you till I fear it is now almost too late having been served with a Writ which
has added three pounds ten already to the debt and in a fortnight we are to
be arrested - now Sir in such a dilemma what am I to do - I have no hope but
from you who have always hitherto pitied and relieved me, and would you so
far serve me as allow me twenty pounds per annum till my debt to you is settled
I should not have to trouble you in this way.

I should feel obliged by informing me how much I am indebted to you as I
am not certain whether my memorandums are correct -

I do not wish to ask for this allowance without interest and as you have
the opportunity of taking my interest I sincerely hope you will not object
to my proposal, it will be an acquisition to my present income that will enable
me to provide for my large family without incurring any debts and I cannot
but flatter myself but you Sir will feel a pleasure in rendering me so material
a service when it is attended with so little sacrifice on your part, that
of a little delay.

Should I not succeed in this request (and I cannot think to be so unsuccessful)
I shall summon resolution to state to Dr Warnford my troubles and I know no
person goes from him without his pity and assistance tho’ I acknowledge
it will be with reluctance as I know I have no claim to either.

In compassion to me and mine do, kind Sir send me a favourable answer to
my request - I fear I shall not succeed in regard to Apprenticing my Child
as I cannot pay the small premium required - let me request you consider maturely
before I hear as I know then I shall not be denied. It is so trifling a sacrifice
and will so essentially serve your

Obedt
humble Servant
E Belcher

at Messrs Rivingtons St Pauls Churchyard.

There is a note on the back presumably written by Wm. Crowdy " Ansd -
sent 20L" so he must have pitied and assisted her !

I posted a message on internet mailing lists for London history, asking if anyone
knew of the School of Industry, or of Mrs. Belcher. Overnight I received two
replies; firstly from Isobel Watson, Chair of the Friends of Hackney Archives,
who knew nothing about the Belcher name, but advised that The Hackney School
of Industry was a parish charity which trained the children of poor parishioners
for a practical trade so that they could earn their own living.

In the 1830s the boys (who were in a separate school from the girls) learned
tailoring, (and made their own clothes) while the girls learnt to do domestic
work and needlework. It was situated for most of its life in Dalston lane, on
the corner with Amhurst Road, and though the boys school seems to have closed
in the 1830s the girls' school was still known as an 'industrial school' in
the 1890s. Isobel said that she could find no reference to a Dr. Warnford but
Pigots directory for 1839 shows that Rivingtons were booksellers. They may have
acted as a poste restante for Mrs. Belcher.

However, the twist in this story is that the second response I received on
the mailing list was from a lady in Australia who is descended directly from
the writer of these letters. Not only that, but her family records show that
Mrs. Elizabeth Belcher was the Matron of the School of Industry in Hackney.
Also, her second youngest son, (who may be one of those referred to in the letters),
emigrated when he was 28, with his wife and children, on the Albeura,
which arrived at Port Adelaide on 7 June 1856, and he subsequently became Post
Master at Burra in South Australia. When he died, this report appeared in the
local paper:-

13/1/1882:

"Death of Mr. J M Belcher. We regret to have to record the death of
Mr. Joseph Moulden Belcher, who for many years occupied the position of Post
and Telegraph master at Burra, and who only retired about a year ago for twelve
months leave on account of failing health. The deceased gentleman never took
a very prominent part in public matters in Burra, being debarred somewhat
as a civil servant from doing so, but he devoted himself the more assiduously
to the work of the office, which was of a very much more laborious character
then than it has been since the railways have been extended. Mr. Belcher suffered
some time ago an apoplectic stroke and just previously to his death two others
followed in rapid succession, and he succumbed on Tuesday, 3rd January at
his residence in North Adelaide. Mr. Belcher’s eldest son occupied the
position of Post and Telegraph stationmaster at Terowrie."

So despite his mother being in such financial strife in 1831 she managed to
have at least one of her children educated, enabling him to become a well-established
free settler in Australia.